Great Park balloon ride could cost $10

What's now a free ride on the big orange balloon at the Orange County Great Park could cost as much as $10 if the park's board of directors approves the price at a special meeting to be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Irvine's City Hall. A trip on the park's carousel could cost $2 per person.

The proceeds would help pay for hosting the U.S. Solar Decathlon and related energy-expo events in October, expected to cost $3.3 million.

The fate of several events at the park – the annual Great Park anniversary celebration, New Year's Eve party, pumpkin harvest festival, Flights & Sounds music festival, and more – also will be up for a vote.

If the board decides not to host the events – typically admission is free, but the park charges $10 per car to park – the savings could be used to fund the decathlon and XPO events.

Irvine Councilman Jeff Lalloway, also chairman of the Great Park's board of directors, was in the minority when he voted against hosting the decathlon. With the park contractually obligated to host, he said the council was assured that outside fundraising would cover the cost of putting on the event, but only about $100,000 had been raised with several months to go.

In January, the city's new political majority – Mayor Steven Choi and council members Christina Shea and Lalloway – voted to end contracts with the city's and park's longtime public relations firm Forde & Mollrich as well as with a lobbying firm – two contracts that critics of the termination have said were key to the decathlon's success.

The biennial decathlon is sponsored by the Department of Energy and involves 20 teams of college students competing against one another to build the best solar-powered home.

The Great Park won hosting rights and up to $1 million from the Department of Energy, agreeing to match that amount to put on the event as well as an energy expo to occur at the same time, from Oct. 3-13. It will be the first time for the event, which began in 2002, to be hosted outside Washington, D.C.